GitHub secondary financing could come at lower valuation

October 10, 2016

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GitHub is in the midst of raising a secondary financing that may value the company below the $2 billion valuation it garnered with a $251 million investment last July, according to TechCrunch. The report also stated that Microsoft is in discussions with GitHub about some sort of deal, though whether that's an investment, acquisition or partnership isn't clear. GitHub denied any acquisition rumors, per TechCrunch.

Considering GitHub is now eight years old, it wouldn't be all that surprising if some early employees were looking to cash out. As companies have been staying private longer and longer, this type of financing has become more common.

The possibility of the new round being raised at a lower valuation, though, might raise some eyebrows, as GitHub is generally considered one of the most-used developer tools on the market. Founded in 2008, the company operates an online community where developers can discover, use and contribute to code bases. To date it's raised about $350 million from firms including Andreessen Horowitz, IVP and Sequoia.